Blogging Theora: Thusnelda release!

[xiphmont]

I was all set to write a long, elaborate post detailing some of the new/ongoing work on the upcoming Thusnelda encoder when Tim and Ralph decided to one-up me.

The initial alpha of Thusnelda is out! It wasn't vaporware before, but now it's hit its first official [alpha] release.

More details in a bit once I figure out where I put my writing cap.

Comments

Yayyyy!!!

[(Anonymous)]

Thank youse!

( I hope this gets past beta soon:
once ACTA gets enacted,
"copyright infringement" becomes a felony,
and I don't know about patent-infringement law amplification,
so we NEED this stuff... )

Re: Yayyyy!!!

[(Anonymous)]

I fear the window of opportunity for Theora is soon closing for other reasons as well: about 7 years from now MPEG-2 will come off-patent (that may be a slightly optimistic, but the real answer is hard to come by. It however will be 20 years (the patent term) after the standard was released). As MPEG-2 will be totally free then, very widely implemented (like in every DVD player), and good enough for most uses, people might see no point in using Theora.

Re: Yayyyy!!!

[(Anonymous)]

MPEG-1 and H.263 are also widely considered patent free, and we don't see people using them online that much. Compression efficiency matters a lot!

Re: Yayyyy!!!

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think MPEG-1 is safely free yet. In any case MPEG-2 is more significant, because of the ubiquity of DVD:s, its use in many consumer camcorders, and in digital TV broadcasts. MPEG-1 never got that kind of market penetration. I currently use MPEG-2 for archiving personal 8mm films and videos, because I can be pretty sure players for the format will exist for a long time.